"Felt 3" was hands down one of
the most important rap albums released in 2009. The perfect balance struck
by Slug and MURS lyrically was ideally matched by production from Aesop
Rock, creating a sonic masterpiece that will only improve as it ages. It seems
Rhymesayers affiliates Grieves and
Budo feel the same way, as they decided to pay tribute to this landmark
tribute to Rosie Perez by taking some freely available acapellas and giving
their own interpretations on the original versions. Reframing a classic used
to be an act that took decades, but in our high speed digital times it makes
sense for G&B to come back and do it only six months after the original.
There's no reason not to check it out - after all it's FREE.

"Bass For Your Truck" is the first track to get the G&B touch, and while I'd
be hard pressed to say you could improve a song I originally wrote "sound(s)
better the more you crank it," I can't complain about their take on the instrumental.
Aesop's version is ambient, echoing, and a little bit eerie. G&B make it more
electronic and the bass if anything it just a tad bit heavier. It's similar to what
happened when the already slamming "Jeep Ass Nigga" by Masta Ace was
transformed into the bass vibrating "Born to Roll," although the effect there
was more dramatic due to a tempo change - here it stays the same as the original
and remix are both about 3:20 in length.

"Like You" also maintains the same length and tempo, but G&B's revision is
even more noticeable here. The original was fairly minimalistic in presentation,
bringing the narcoleptic and slightly depressed delivery of Slug and MURS to
the forefront. G&B flip the script and make it much more upbeat, happy-go-lucky
and musical - a fun and bouncy song which had previously seemed almost dour.
It's remarkable considering nothing about the lyrics has been changed whatsoever.

Not every revision is a success. "Felt Chewed Up" was a gritty bruising attack
on the audio canals punctuated by the matter of fact refrain "F-E-L-T, FELT
FELT FELT" - a declaration of "real rap, raw beats, that bang in y'all streets."
G&B soften it up far too much in the verses, then try to overload it in the chorus,
and miss on both marks. "Protagonist" becomes an outer space trippy pop tune
where it originally been the album's opening track, a chunky and funky rap
from "your favorite group that wasn't even a group" that set the tone for the
entire CD and was anthemic in its declaration that Felt is "everything you love
about rap in one disc." G&B lose that cutting edge while trying to respect it.

Grieves and Budo close out better with their take on "Glory Burning," and
overall can't be said to have ruined anything MURS and Slug originally did
by giving it an alternate sound. It's well and good to be fair but it also serves
the reader to note that if you put the same five songs on this EP next to their
contemporaries on the original release, you'd prefer the Aesop Rock version
in almost every case. Then again it would have been exceedingly difficult
for ANY artist to top what was almost a flawless classic, so you can
respect the moxie of G&B for trying in the first place.